Kimbal & Elon Musk Reveal How We Will Farm Food On Mars

kimball musk is in the process of making history with his innovations in the agriculture sector with the brotherly duo working for a bright future in the tech industry and agriculture it begs the question what would be the results of their joint forces a duo like this is set to do things that are out of this world where elon musk is working around the clock to get humankind to mars kimball is not further away with his efforts and works to grow food on mars for the first time ever we now have systems that can produce food independently without borrowing any favors from the environment for as long as space travel goes astronauts have depended on packaged food for survival it's only fair because for a short-term trip packaged food gives all the nutrients a body needs for a certain amount of time but if we're talking about a very long-term stay nutrients are just a fraction of human needs and since plants are one of the most essential parts to our ecosystem and part of the food chain for living organisms on earth moving to a new planet without plants isn't really an option anna-lysa paul the co-director of the university of florida space plants lab said and rightly so plants are things that we take with us as explorers they're part of our core heritage whether we think of it or not so how will we put our green fellows to work on mars space agriculture is a whole field of study in itself a study to which nasa has been actively contributing because a healthy plant system in space will be a huge support system for mankind's survival success in this field will ensure a strong supply of calories and nutrients in addition to oxygen production and reducing carbon dioxide from the air nasa's contribution goes way back in the 80s and 90s nasa actively funded a vast range of agriculture programs a collaboration between nasa and the university of wisconsin led to the discovery of how a certain blend of led lights can replace grow lights it wasn't just more energy efficient but it also allowed the plants to photosynthesize better all this work resulted in a patent and in today's world indoor farms are successfully operating with led lights that give them the needed photons for healthy growth in a comment to nasa's work a horticultural scientist raymond wheeler with decades of study on space agriculture at the kennedy space center says nasa was genuinely in front of the curve on this promoting their use for these applications wheeler was part of a ksc team in the 1980s that takes a lot of the credit for the vertical farming system that has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry today the team grew soybeans wheat potatoes and other crops by submerging their roots in a solution filled with nutrients a plant needs the experiment took place inside a huge tube-shaped chamber with plants stacked in four road shelves this was the first ever vertical farm in history and the seed of horticultural innovation that could help us with our endeavors of terraforming mars when thinking of the red planet you can't help but think if it's even possible for mars cold hard dystopian surface to power plants wouldn't we need soil or something similar to earth to test the systems and the processes of raising crops in harsh conditions without soil in the fall of 2017 the german aerospace center delivered twin shipping containers to antarctica this dress rehearsal continues to prove that fertile ground and sunlight aren't the only ways to grow plants and vegetables as it entered its fourth growing season this year since the beginning of the experiment which was great news for the potential to ensure growth for plants on mars the experiment is built upon the led discovery by nasa in the 80s that we mentioned earlier to improve upon the original discovery nasa is striving to engineer formulas adjusted as per the need of different vegetables with software controlled rays of blue and red light diet to summarize the process roots of plants are passed through sheets of fibrous minerals and float above empty trays where they're sprayed automatically with nutrient mist every few seconds the water used is largely recycled but dumped every few months when it's depleted and needs to be replaced the entire setup draws approximately 10 kilowatts of power from the german neumaya 3 research station and could easily be powered by solar cells on mars as elon musk's mission to mars includes sending greenhouses on board the starships with the success of the soil-free software-controlled greenhouse project by the germans the project coordinator at dlr antarctica daniel schubert plans to send an email to elon i still need to send elon musk an email and ask if we can design his greenhouse if this continues to be successful it's going to be incredible to see how this collaboration unfolds in the first year of the antarctic breakthrough project a researcher called paul zabel collected nearly 272 kilograms of vegetables that the facility had produced by running around the 135 square foot greenhouse container these vegetables included a variety of tomatoes cucumbers lettuces radishes and other leafy greens and herbs despite being equipped with modern technology such as automated fertilization lighting and watering it took paul about four days to keep the eden iss operative this time needs to be reduced as human labor in space is as important as air and water it's impractical for astronauts to be working that long on it nasa decided to send their own researcher jess bun check to minimize the time for research purposes she examined certain specific strains of vegetables at eden iss conducted by the germans and gathered data of the tasks that required significant time the takeaway from the eden iss greenhouse according to bundcheck was that facilities need to be further simplified to be replicated anywhere else we will definitely scale down the technologies complexity for a space greenhouse shubert says it's obvious that the musks and dlr share a part of the vision of habitating mars kimball in an interview with ryan daniel morin talked about how in his perception things aren't impossible but rather improbable it must be easy to keep an open mind when he literally witnessed his brother work on the vision to take a pot plant to mars just to prove that it's technically possible that later turned into spacex we should all stop labeling things as impossible at present kimball is the fourth largest stakeholder in tesla and a board member of the company adding more to the list he's a board member of spacex and chipotle as well also being one of the earlier investors of paypal labeling him as a serial entrepreneur with a unique vision is only fair meaning grand visions is nothing he's new to so for an overachiever like himself what started as an endeavor to bless people on earth with real food may also extend to mars as kimball said i'm focused on bringing real food to everyone on earth but the farming technology we're building at square roots can and will be used on mars after having a near-death experience kimball set his mind to focus on real food while on the hospital bed he along with co-founder tobias peggs founded square roots that packs farmlands into industrial containers their goal is to create conditions that make it possible for crops to grow as close as possible to the location of use this will not only minimize wastage but also ensure freshness and improved flavors that are lost during the commute kimball musk along with his co-founder pulls this wonder by creating small hydroponic farming systems in containers these independent systems are able to produce several non-gmo vegetables at all times and without the use of pesticides not only that but they come with their own irrigation setup and software controlled led lighting that can be placed anywhere which could work as a great asset for the mars missions with the potential collaboration between dlr and square roots the ultimate goal is to create a greenhouse that is completely self-sufficient the second best thing to that is to create a system that is out of earth but controlled from the planet a facility that could be sent to another world ahead of humans be it mars or the moon so astronauts could be welcomed with plants and vegetables that are already thriving on their own in a self-functioning greenhouse you need to make sure that the plants are feeling good without going about a daily routine to check on them monitoring plant stress is an essential part in determining the potential for this ambitious goal of growing plants on mars the new facility dlr is currently working on its space-rated semi-inflatable cylinder that has a few interesting updates from those discussed above since the focus here is to keep track of the changes in plants with stress and ways to manage it one major enhancement is the use of software within gopros for remote monitoring at the uf space plants lab annalisa paul along with her colleagues are developing the software to identify how the form of plants shifts under stress for instance the color of light a plant reflects and absorbs is so subtle that it's impossible to notice with the naked eye but the new additions to the software will be able to recognize the changes within 15 minutes and manage it within an hour that's a job done much more efficiently as compared to what our precious faculties previously could do the systems that we tried at the eden iss couldn't get conclusive results as the greenhouse had no harsh conditions that could put the monitor system to a real test the co-director robert fearl at space plant's lab said we've been watching a lot of success happen regardless to get results intentionally creating stressful conditions and errors are in plans to test whether the software and systems will do the job to further minimize the use of human labor robotic arms are in the works that'll be able to execute tasks that are being done by people right now even though they won't have better biceps they sure will work for longer hours these include taking pictures with different angles clipping dead shoots and leaves and harvesting the production of vegetables these are the activities that nasa researcher shubert identified as the most laborious tasks in the faculty while mars doesn't have a lot coming from the sun itself it sure has lots of sunshine coming from the musks now all we have to do is wait for the day when we can book a space ticket to the next planet and feast on a good salad as we land on the red planet what do you think about this idea of growing food on mars let me know in the comments down below don't forget to subscribe and as always thanks so much for watching and until next time welcome to the future

Channel: Futurity

Views: 80,929

Keywords: futurity, elon musk, elon musk tesla, tesla elon musk, tesla, kimbal musk, kimbal musk interview, elon musk kimbal, elon musk brother urban farm, elon musk brother, kimbal musk square roots, kimbal musk elon musk, square roots urban farm, elon and kimbal musk, elon and kimbal musk interview, kimbal musk vertical farming, kimbal musk mars food, elon musk food on mars, colonizing mars, mars colonization, elon musk news, kimbal musk news, life on mars, food on mars, mars, nasa

Id: QjRSXTE-YCc

Length: 9min 3sec (543 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 24 2021